Here are this week’s Fresh Faves – chosen by our readers over the weekend and reviewed by Team Freshnet moderator Jim Craigen from AlternativeFriday.com. You can hear all these tracks in a single Soundcloud playlist here.
Every week, the Fresh on the Net moderators and I listen to a wonderfully varied selection of songs, and we then trim them down to the 25 you hear on the Listening Post. So thanks to everyone who came along at the weekend, listened to them, and voted. Yet again we had a wonderfully eclectic and refreshing selection of songs to hear, and the ten that received the most votes reflects that mix, which not only take us from Auckland to Vancouver, but covers the ‘obsessively ginger’ to the seemingly ‘weird’… via a ‘sansula’… whatever that is?
ANDRENACHROME – L’Espace Du Souffle
If you love your electronica then L’espace Du Souffle by Andrenachrome – aka Black Hawk, aka Lincoln musician Steve Eyre – should put a warm smile on your face as it mixes house music with a bit of funk disco to help provide a groove that should keep dance floors busy. A hypnotic soufflé, if that’s possible?
Soundcloud | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Bandcamp
BLACK SURF – Burn It To The Ground
Black Surf are a 4-piece band from Leeds, who have been “best mates since we were kids”, while Burn It To The Ground is a grunge pop rock track with wonderfully distorted vocals and simple riffs that at times feel almost laid back and psychedelic. I bet visitors to their no doubt busy mosh pits would struggle to describe them as laid back though!
Instagram | Soundcloud | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Bandcamp
CAROLINE ENGLAND – Pretend
It would take me all day to come up with a description for Caroline England that is more entertaining than her own, so I’ll let her introduce herself… “If blondes are wild, and brunettes are true, you’ll never know what a ginger will do. Obsessively ginger. Likes old things. Cosmic orderer”. Pretend itself, is a wonderfully delicate track with intricate production, which will surely make you feel good.
Official | Soundcloud | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | iTunes
DEBS MCCOY & LEAH COLOFF – The Weight
We all count ourselves as music fans here at Fresh on the Net, but some of us (not me though sadly) are also musicians in our own right too. Debs McCoy is one of those, and for this sublime piano instrumentation, she has been joined by Leah Coloff on the cello. The Weight is a haunting and emotional piece, which could be easily placed as a backing track for film or television. Picture it accompanying a dark scene though, rather than one from The Vicar of Dibley!
Official | Soundcloud | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Bandcamp
HEIDI BROWNE – Lost In Grey
The lush arrangements, exquisite vocals, and soft harmonised melodies in this track, from Shrewsbury based Heidi Browne, make for a song that is both charming and warming on these cold and grey autumn nights. One to warm your cockles.
Official | Soundcloud | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Bandcamp
JOHNNY DE COURCY – Wind Chimes
Wind Chimes is an intriguing track, setting off on a mellow path with the verses, before the powerful guitar riffs and percussion join in for the chorus. Johnny De Courcy comes from New Westminster, near Vancouver (so I’m guessing Roger isn’t his Dad). The track is from his new album Alien Lake, and its strength surely makes the album one that requires investigation.
Soundcloud | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Bandcamp
MAX COOPER – Origins
I love the story behind this as much as the track itself, as it’s a song that came about in part due to the gift of an instrument. A few years ago Max Cooper did a remix of a track called Sansula, which featured an instrument of the same name. A Dutch builder of these instruments subsequently presented Max with one to use in a track. Origins is that track, a hypnotic and melodic electronica piece, which is destined to be an earworm, so if this is what a sansula brings to a song then I for one would like them to be mandatory in music. Dazzling.
Official | Soundcloud | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube
MISS KENICHI – The Ghost
With searing vocals and a complex mix of arrangements covering guitars, mandolin, organ, piano, and drums, The Ghost is a fascinating track from Berlin-based musician and artist Katrin Hahner, aka Miss Kenichi, and comes from her third album, The Trail. I’m struggling to pin down the genre though, so answers on a postcard please.
Official | Soundcloud | Facebook | YouTube | Bandcamp
SHE’S SO RAD – Cool It
This is a superb piece of fuzzy shoegazing from Auckland band She’s So Rad, with the captivating lo-fi vocals of Anji Sami and outstanding guitar work making it a gem worth playing on repeat. Well worth turning the volume up for.
Official | Soundcloud | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Bandcamp
YOU – 100 Lanterns
“We are a bit weird but we mean well”. That eye catching (autobiographical) mini bio of London band YOU is surely enough to put a smile on your face and make you dig a little deeper. When you do that you’ll come across a breezy dreampop 4-piece band, full of melodic tunes led by the exotic vocals of singer Anna Waldmann. There’s nothing weird about that.
Official | Soundcloud | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube
PS from TR: If you’ve submitted a track that hasn’t made the Listening Post you’re welcome to re-submit it another week. If your music has appeared on the Listening Post but not in our Fresh Faves, feel free to send us an even stronger track another week.
But if we’ve recently featured you in our Fresh Faves – or on my BBC Introducing Mixtape – please wait three months before sending us another track, so we have space to help other deserving artists… For more info see Robinson Has A Good Old Moan.
Top job Jim. Enjoyed reading your reviews, nice one. 🙂
Great to hear something completely different on here – referring to Debs McCoy and Leah Colloff, of course – superb !
Thanks very much Big Jim for your grand words about my track and the others. Enjoyed reading and listening through to everyones tracks again.
Cheers me dear
Debs x
Some great stuff here very much deserved of being heard.
Yes, a great mix of music. Thanks for the kind words.
It was a very tough week on the moderating and the voting, but the result is worth it! Great words, Jim!
Great reviews Jim-bang on the money with this lovely batch of sweet tunes
really like what Max Cooper is doing atm and that there Debs McCoy-her music just continues to grow
Thanks for the lovely words about our song and thank so much to whoever voted for it 🙂 really enjoying all this weeks lovely music. Anna from YOU xxx